Posted
by
samzenpus
on Thursday March 03, 2011 @12:11AM
from the small-packages dept.

garymortimer writes "The Ministry of Defense (MOD) is making 20 million pounds available for Nano UAS. This is the second story this week in which military organizations seem to be looking for small multicopters. A market to date that has been ignored by the big defense contractors and a space owned by small start ups. No doubt some of those small start ups will soon become big defense contractors!"

Well considering the current UK terror alert was recently raised to severe and they have already recently foiled terrorist plots such as (http://www.comparecarrentals.co.uk/news/261127639.html). I understand the balance between privacy and not being murdered by superstitious maniacs is unfair on everyone.
I agree that the UK government mollycoddles its population too much and people are right to treat any moves especially against privacy dubiously but equally would you like to be the one to explain to grie

UK MOD to spend 20 million Pounds on toy sized drones which will then be added to every McHappy meal sold in the UK so that they can watch the not quite toy sized British youth.
--
s/toy/Queen Mary/ FIFY
Not that the little fat bastards on this side of the pond are immune to the siren song of the fast food.
Since we seemed to have invented it. Sorry earth..

OK - I know I might sound a bit ignorant declaring this, but this story really excited me because I read the title as; "UT MOD spends $ on 20 million mini helicopters."

I know what you might be thinking - 20 mill mini copters wouldn't be nearly enough for a one night frag fest - but seriously; tiny cameras and laser lights to simulate in the real world ---- it would just be so Epic!

but then I realized the last time Epic and Unreal crossed paths and then I realized this was just a wasteful military scheme to

The US and indeed, nations around the world, are implementing or preparing to implement aircraft regulations for UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), which includes the model aircraft of us radio controlled airplane hobbyists. While there isn't much in common with the typical model aircraft and a Predator drone with a Hellfire Missile, there is a LOT in common between these new nUAS's and a model aircraft. Just look at the thing. I have seen hobbyists at my local hobby field fly similar hobby planes they purchased for a few hundred dollars that already fly 20 minutes and longer. In case you weren't aware, the aircraft model hobby is moving in huge numbers from gas powered planes to the new LiPo battery powered planes. There are now battery-electric motor combinations that match the power of every gas powered model airplane engine in the world. And my own batteries easily keep my planes in the air for 20 minutes each, same as these military specifications. There is a good overview of upcoming regulatory actions worldwide, on the "sUAS News" website: http://www.suasnews.com/uas-regulations/.

On a tangental note, I enjoy flying radio control helicopters, I have three of them (a "micro sized" heli, T-Rex 250, with a rotor disc of about 25 cm diameter, weighing about 350g), a 500-size and a 600-size (which weighs about 2.5kg, IIRC with a rotor diameter of 1.6 metres), all of them are collective pitch and extremely agile (they are all aerobatic models). All of them are electric too.

What worries me a little is that the wider political world will see the small drones, which don't look an awful lot different to a model RC heli, then start invoking the "terrorism!" bogeyman and trying to ban/restrict the RC flying we do or making us go through a painful registration process to be able to buy parts or helis. It won't take a huge leap of imagination for some politician to think that my T-Rex 600 could be some sort of threat to a public figure if fitted with an FPV (first person view) system, and then we have yet another avenue of pleasure closed off due to the war-on-terror:-(

Well unless batteries get 100x better in the next few years it is hard to see how these little things could be used for military or terrorist use. Considering how slowly battery technology has evolved so far despite the immense demand from mobile devices I can't see that happening.

I too have a few model helis. The typically take 30-40 minutes to charge and fly for around 10 minutes.That is radio controlled, no on-board computer or video cameras etc. Very low weight too, no cargo or gadgets. The problem with